Next
by xXHeart of GoldXx
Summary: Nothing changed, only added angst as 2nd genre. When Shego was a little girl, she was threatened that she'd be next. When Shego was older, she went back to the house where she could have been next. What does she find out? And was she really in any danger?


I don't own Kim Possible.

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><p>Noelle had entered her first grade class with her head hanging low as she stared at her feet; one shoe going in front of the other. She wore her black Maryjanes to match her dark blue dress that had a velvet bow in the back, with her snow white stockings. A matching bow was placed in her long, blonde hair to match it. One would have thought it was picture day at Go City Elementary, but it was just an ordinary January day. The whole reason she was dressed up was because she had received this dress for Christmas from her grandfather who lived all the way in France in a small village, and she had wanted to wear it. Her mother was obsessed with her daughter's image even though she had just turned six last month, and encouraged her to wear it, saying that it was cute and looked very slimming on her small frame. Noelle's mother always put in a ton of effort in her own appearance, and wanted her daughter to look just as good.<p>

She took her seat at one of the round tables in the room. She was seated near the back and had trouble seeing the board because she was small for her age and couldn't see over the taller kids' heads. School hadn't officially started yet, so all of the other kids were playing with various toys such as blocks and those little toy cars her older brother, Michael, played with occasionally. Noelle wasn't really like the other kids and was constantly nervous, quiet, and dreadfully shy, which was probably due to a mizture of her home life and the fact that she had just moved to America from France a few months back. So, she just took a piece of blank paper from the middle of the table, and took out the crayons that sat in the bin on top of the paper.

Noelle started to draw a cute little house, adding a window and a door, along with a black path that led to it. The house, she decided, was pink, and there were flowers lining the front of the house, some purple, orange, red, and yellow. The grass was green. It was a solid mass, like how a six year old would draw. The sky was blue with no clouds in the sky, and a sun peaking in from the corner, a swirl of yellow and orange. "I like your picture, Noelle," one of the girls in the class said. Noelle looked up from her drawing and saw the girl that gave her a nice compliment. She had straight dark brown hair and hazel eyes.

The girl's name was Amanda. She was a very outgoing little girl. Noelle knew she was into horseback riding, soccer, and shopping. She was very articulate and was friends with most of the kids in their first grade class, plus some in other classes. Amanda had never noticed Noelle before, or maybe she had, but she never stopped to say a nice hello. Noelle had to admit, she didn't necessarily like Amanda because she was also a bully towards some of the girls that weren't considered normal. Noelle knew she wasn't really considered a normal girl; she had never been bullied by Amanda or anyone else.

"Thank you," Noelle said sweetly. She began to pick at the skin behind her fingernails. It was a nervous habit that she had, probably the only habit, and she didn't really care to stop.

"You're welcome. Can I join you?" Amanda asked her, batting her eyes.

"Sure," Noelle smiled, even though she didn't want to. She continued to work on her picture, adding a few birds shaped as "V's" in the sky. Looking back at it and decided that she was satisfied with it, she flipped the paper over and began to draw another picture. She didn't really play with other children, other than her brothers. She liked to keep to herself.

"You're a very good drawer. What kind of flower are you making?" Amanda asked her. Noelle looked down at her picture; it was just a simple flower. It had a yellow center, bright blue petals, and a green stem with two big green leaves at the bottom.

"Just a flower," Noelle said quietly. She turned to Amanda's drawing, which confused her a bit. It was a person, a man from what she could tell because it had short hair, had a knife in his hand. It looked to be threatening the little girl she had drawn on the other side of the picture.

"Do you like my picture?" Amanda asked as she fiddled with the sleeves of her maroon colored turtleneck that matched one of the colors on her plaid skirt. Noelle didn't know how to answer it. The picture kind of scared her. "I know, it's scary," Amanda said as she crinkled her nose at it in disgust. She crumpled up the paper and tossed it in the garbage that was right behind them.

"How come you drew that picture?" Noelle asked her. She put the green crayon down- she'd finish the leaves later- and focused her attention on Amanda.

"I don't know," Amanda shrugged. Noelle suppressed a funny look and comment, and turned back to her picture. She finished coloring the green leaves that came off of the stem. She left a little spot to draw a ladybug, a red one, with exactly three dots on each wing. She drew a butterfly, a pink and purple one right above the flower, and made sure it had the same patterns on each wing.

She looked over to Amanda's picture and saw that she was drawing a little girl in the corner. Amanda took the red crayon and started scribbling red on the little girl's face and legs. A knife was placed next to the little girl in the picture with blonde hair, and a man was drawn again. This time, he was laughing. In one of those quotation bubbles, the words "haha" were written in it. Noelle had a feeling something was wrong with Amanda. She had never seen someone draw things that graphic, accept maybe Henry when he was younger, but he was a boy and boys drew violent pictures of wars and dinosaurs eating each other. "Do you like this one?" Amanda asked her. Noelle didn't know how to respond to it. It was well drawn, but she hated what was in it. "I don't really like it, either."

"Are you okay?" Noelle asked her quietly. Thankfully, no one was around them. They were all on the carpet playing with toys. Amanda shook her head. "What's wrong?"

"It's my daddy," Amanda whispered. "He likes to cut people up."

"What?" she squeaked. She didn't like how Amanda's voice was low and how calm she said that. Noelle discreetly backed away from her, but Amanda took her by the wrist, preventing her from leaving the table.

"You're next," she said to her, eyes wide. Noelle tried to tug her bony wrist from her, but she was too weak to escape from Amanda's tight grasp. Of course, Noelle was too shy and timid to scream for help. She just kept her mouth shut and let tears fall down onto her pale cheeks.

"I don't want to be next," Noelle said and looked at the picture Amanda drew on the table. She understood the picture now; the man was Amanda's dad, and the little girl was herself.

"You will be. Because I don't want to be," Amanda said. She released her grip and left the table. Noelle stayed seated and started to pick at the skin behind her fingernails. Her life was already a bit odd and probably unsafe at home, but this was beyond something her little mind could wrap around. She sat there and cried silently, wishing that she wasn't going to be cut up.

"Hey Noelle," another girl had come sit down next to her, taking Amanda's seat. Noelle wasn't startled like she usually was when someone said her name. This little girl wasn't Amanda though, it was Emily, one of Amanda's many friends. "Don't pay attention to Amanda. She's just trying to scare you. She says that kind of stuff to people she doesn't know good. She's making all that up. She likes to scare people with her stories."

"Are you sure?" Noelle hiccupped and rubbed her eyes to dry them. She trusted Emily because Emily was a nice girl who was in girl scouts.

"I am," Emily smiled and picked up Amanda's picture she left on the table. "She draws this all the time, but usually she says it's herself."

"It's me," Noelle sobbed.

"Don't think about it. Amanda's lying. You know she's a bully." Emily's words held truth in them, and she decided to believe her. After all, she had just turned six years old, so she didn't think much of it for the rest of the day.

However, when school was out for the day, Amanda approached Noelle as she started to walk home. She grabbed her by the hair, and Noelle couldn't even scream. She tried to fight the taller girl off, but it wouldn't work. "You will be next," Amanda yelled at her. "I will not be next!" Noelle was dragged onto the ground, her head hitting the pavement.

"Stop it," Noelle desperately tried to yell, but it came out as a hopeless whisper. She kicked and thrashed her legs about, not caring if anyone could see up her dress at the moment. She tried to hit the other girl, but Amanda was bigger and stronger than her. But Noelle was small, so she was able to squirm her way out of Amanda's grasp eventually.

"I refuse to be next," Amanda stomped her foot on the ground, giving Noelle the chance to push up and off the ground.

"Emily says you're just being a bully. Stop scaring me," Noelle cried. Her head hurt from when the other girl pulled her hair.

"Of course Emily thinks I make things up. She thinks I play pretend like she does all the time. But I don't play pretend. I'm not lying. My daddy does cut people up and he says that I'm gonna be next if I don't bring someone home with me soon," Amanda said, slowly stepping closer to the blonde. Noelle just stood there, but began to back away, her legs finally responding to her brain.

"But why me?" she managed to squeak.

"Because you're quiet. No one will notice you're gone," Amanda reasoned. Noelle had a feeling it was true. Most people neglected her anyway, but she didn't want to be chopped up. She had images running through her head, about a move her older brother, Henry, had watched once. She had hid behind the living room couch to watch it. She knew she wasn't supposed to, but she really wanted to watch it because Henry got to watch her movies, so why wouldn't she get to watch his? She recalled people getting hacked up with an ax, and stabbed and sliced with a sword. She didn't get to see the ending because she had screamed a little at one part, and Henry had caught her.

Noelle knew she wasn't old like her parents, so she didn't want to die. So, she ran. And she was a fast runner naturally. She ran towards, well, she didn't know, but she'd figure out how to get home. She wished Michael was with her to reassure her that Emily had told her the truth. But in her gut, she had a feeling Amanda was telling the truth.

So, she did was she did best: Noelle ran away from her. She couldn't hear Amanda's threats anymore. She stopped and looked behind her, and saw that Amanda was still approaching her. Tears spilled from her eyes, blurring her vision. Noelle had bumped into something and fell onto the cold, hard ground. She panicked because she could hear Amanda's shoes hitting the pavement as she ran to catch up. "Are you all right?" a kind voice asked her as she helped up the small girl. Noelle looked up at her. The woman had orange hair and blue eyes, with a concerned look to them. Noelle backed up from the stranger because she was a bit timid. The thought of Amanda getting her, though, terrified her more, so she threw herself against the woman, clutching what seemed to be a doctor's white jacket. "What's the matter?"

"She says I'm next," Noelle cried. She didn't know why she was able to speak to someone she didn't know, but this woman seemed to be nice enough, and Amanda was really scaring her. The brunette had stopped and stood in front of the orange haired woman and Noelle.

"What do you mean?"

"She," Noelle pointed towards Amanda, "says her daddy's gonna cut me up. And I don't want to be cut up," she cried into the white jacket, clutching it as if it was a lifeline. Amanda looked like a deer caught in the headlights and began to run away from the scene as fast as she could.

"Well, she's not going to get you now," the woman smiled at her and embraced her in a comforting hug. "I think she was just trying to scare you."

"Really?"

"I think so," the doctor said. "Would you like me to bring you home?" Noelle nodded, not wanting to go all by herself so that she'd be vulnerable to Amanda's father. She didn't know whether to believe if it was true or not about the girl's father. The next day at school though, it was rumored that Amanda had simply moved away from Go City. Noelle, however, knew the answer; after all, she could have been next.

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><p>Shego stood in front of an old white house. The paint was chipping off, and it had been condemned a very long time ago, around the time the six year old Amanda stopped showing up to school. She remembered how another girl, Emily, had claimed she had moved away. But Shego didn't believe it; the little girl named Amanda must have been hurt; cut up by her father.<p>

Shego decided to enter the house. She wasn't afraid of most things, but this gave her the creeps. She didn't like old, abandoned houses like these. It was as if it came from a horror movie, something a group of stupid teenagers would stay in because it was cheap and slightly creepy. Shego didn't really believe in ghosts and auras, or anything that had to do with the supernatural forces or whatever. But, this house gave off a strange vibe.

She had read the article that had been kept away from her when she was a child. Even her father or her mother didn't show her the article. In fact, Shego had forgotten about Amanda and most of her childhood because she desperately wanted to block it out of her mind.

Shego had come across this article by accident, actually. Well, Dr. Drakken had. He had just watched a horror movie the other night, a movie about a man who chopped people up in his basement for fun, then used their skin as clothes, and ate the remains. He wanted to know if people really did cut other people up. Shego rolled her eyes and said something about how he was a villain and should know that fucked up things happen like that, even to that extreme.

This only made Drakken even more interested in the whole subject. He began to type things in various search engines on the internet. He found piles of articles about the infamous serial killers of all time. This jogged Shego's memory, one about her past that was locked up far back in her mind, something she didn't want to remember.

"I almost died here, but for some reason, I can't leave it. I come here almost every day now. Funny how I don't want to get rid of my past." Any normal person would have jumped at the voice that seemed to come from nowhere, especially when one thought she was alone. However, Shego wasn't normal and she didn't jump or get startled easily. Shego simply looked over at the woman who had spoke. The woman stood there with her short, brown hair slightly blowing in the wind that occasionally blew. She had crutches, the kind that wrap around wrists, and she smiled at Shego, a nice smile, not a threatening one.

"Amanda?" Shego whispered to herself.

"Hi," she said. "I'm Amanda. I know who you are. You're Shego. Most people are afraid of you because you are the most wanted female alive to this day. But I'm not afraid of you."

"You should be afraid of me," Shego replied. "I can burn you, I can hurt you, I can probably even kill you if I had the strong urge to."

"I know you can. But you're really not what you seem, are you, Noelle Gordon?" Shego's emerald eyes went wide when Amanda called her by her full name.

"How did you…?" Shego trailed at loss for words.

"It was just a random guess to be honest. I just don't know who else would come back here besides myself," Amanda explained. "Who would have thought that little, innocent Noelle would have become Shego. It's really crazy how people end up in the future, huh?"

"Sure," Shego said, keeping an eye on her.

"I won't tell anyone who you really are," Amanda said. "You're identity is safe with me."

"How can I trust you with that?" Shego asked her, kind of glaring at the handicapped girl.

"Because I owe you so much, you know, from back when we were in first grade. I shouldn't have scared you like that. I shouldn't have wanted you to be next, so to speak. And the sick part is, I wish it was you instead of me," Amanda explained.

"You're insane, you know that?"

"And you've changed so much," Amanda whispered as tears started to fall down her face. "I wish we could go back in time so that you had prosthetic legs instead of me. I wish your dad cut you up instead."

"My dad wasn't any better," Shego muttered so that Amanda couldn't hear. But Amanda had heard, and she pressed her pink lips together and shuttered, holding back a sob.

"Whatever," Amanda said. "It should have been you. At least it would have prevented you from becoming who you are today. Why do bad things happen to good people?" she questioned looking up at the sky.

"I used to be good," Shego said. "You know, back when I was little. Bad things used to happen to me. Now that I'm on the other side, good things happen to me."

"That's twisted," Amanda cried.

"So is wanting someone else to get chopped up, but I'm not here complaining. Get over it, Amanda. It happened a long time ago. Bad things happened to me, too and I'm able to get on with my life. Stop dwelling about the past and do something with your life instead of standing here and crying over it," Shego yelled at her. "Common sense goes such a long way. Don't fuck it up." Shego walked away from the sobbing girl, absolutely disgusted with her. Sure, it was bad that she had lost two limbs, but Shego had met so many kinds of people in her life, some disabled, and they had gotten over their problems.

"Oh please, don't give me that crap. You're still upset about your life. You went evil simply because life didn't treat you well," Amanda shouted towards her. "I'm not the only one who's dwelling about the past." Shego continued to walk away from her. This girl had to have been messed up in the brain. Who on Earth would come back to a place where they had been almost killed daily? "Just run away, you were good at that!" she shouted again. Shego tried not to think about it. She rarely ran away from a problem, but this time, it wasn't a problem; she was running away from someone who was probably in a mental institute.

And when she got to the end of the driveway and onto the sidewalks of Go City, she had been right. Three people wearing uniforms stood there, just watching Amanda next to a minivan. "She's insane," one of the men said. Shego stopped when she heard the man mutter this.

"Excuse me?" she said to him.

"Nothing, just nothing," the man said.

"If you know what's best for you, you'll tell me what is wrong with Amanda," Shego said threateningly as she lit up her plasma. She didn't wave it in front of his face; she simply kept her arms relaxed at her sides. She had quite the reputation, and people feared her. Shego knew she'd get classified information from these three because they were only taking care of Amanda.

"Okay," he said out of fear.

"Amanda Yates is in Go City's insane asylum. What happened was when she was a little girl, her father had passed away, probably when she was about four or five," one of the other men spoke up. He seemed to have more confidence to face her. He had to be about six foot four, and he was a strong guy with brown hair, light skin, and hazel eyes. He looked at her in the eyes with confidence.

"Go on," she urged.

"She believed her father was alive, even though he was gone. She couldn't accept it and created her father in her mind. Her father, George Yates, had been obsessed with chopping down firewood with his axe. He chopped down the trees in their yard, and in the winters, he would go and chop down trees in the cabin they owned up in Maine. Anyway, he loved that axe for some reason. I think it might have been a family heirloom."

"What does this have to do with Amanda?" Shego questioned him with interest. She wasn't even using a threatening tone anymore.

"I'm getting there," the man said. "What happened was, Amanda created her father in her mind. She would literally believe she saw him walking about as usual. Since he died, the family stopped going to Maine every winter. So, in her mind, she saw her father getting restless with the axe. In other words, since there weren't any trees to chop down in Go City, he needed to use his axe somehow," he explained.

"So basically she imagined him cutting up people?" Shego questioned.

"That's what we think," he nodded. "So, when she imagined this, it seemed real to her because she claims she saw him doing that. And one day, he said he ran out of people. So, he told her to go get someone before he decided to use his axe to chop her up, as gruesome as it sounds. She explained to us that she had tried to get a little girl named Noelle to go home with her to face her father's wrath. But Noelle was able to get away from her. So, when Amanda got home, she apologized to her imaginary father. She claims that George cut her up with the axe, but in reality, Amanda hacked at her own legs with it." Shego couldn't even imagine a six year old doing such things to herself. It was absolutely disgusting, but also sad at the same time.

"How did her mom not notice her weird behavior?" Shego questioned. "I mean, if I had a daughter and she started acting like that, I would have done something about it before this happened."

"Her mother ignored it for too long. But after it happened, her mother placed her in a mental institution and never came back for her. Amanda's alone, but she claims she still has her father. She thinks George is just in jail, but one day he'll come back to his old home. That's why she keeps coming back here," he explained to her. "That's about it."

"So you guys let her come back here? Seems to me you just keep feeding her the hope that her father would come back instead of taking the time to cure her," Shego said and looked over to where Amanda stood, facing the old house.

"She's too lost," one of the men said, the shorter one of the three. "She can't come out of this world she created for herself. She even believes she's a movie star or something, and we're her drivers. She has this whole world that she created. Nothing will take her out of it."

"Thanks, guys," Shego said and went off on her way, very quickly, as if she was in a building and an alarm was triggered, so she had to get out of there fast. Shego had no idea Amanda was that far off to reality. She had seemed sane, kind of, when she was talking to her, but this just proved to Shego that anyone could be insane and she'd never really know it.

But one thing put that dark memory to rest; she'd never, ever be next.


End file.
